A Changed Pet or Person?

Passage:  “ Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.  Her early leaf’s a flower: But only so an hour. Then subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. … ‘Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it then i'm gettin’, though.’ ”
(77- 78)

This poem is said by ponyboy to Johnny in chapter 4. This is when Johnny and Ponyboy had woken early and decided to watch the sun rise. S.E Hinton picked this for many reasons. The poem relates to the characters as well as the tone of the story. If you pick the poem apart, it has a deeper meaning. The title is “Natures first green is gold.”  Gold in that phrase has another meaning though apart from the obvious shiny metal gold is in reality. Gold is the underling good in people, and to continue down the poem. Robert Frost is using the change of the seasons by starting with birth and explaining how life can be as short as a sunrise to convey and relate to peoples everyday lives.

But besides what the passages general meaning in the context of all life, S.E Hinton specifically took Frost’s words into her text. To relate something as broad as the changes of life and the world to a character in a book must have been a very hard connection to make. I am almost sure that one day S.E Hinton did not just have a light bulb just go off and The Outsiders was born. Hinton related the change of Johnny to the course of life. Johnny changed his approach to everything. Instead of letting someone else in the gang handle something for him, when he ran away Johnny was forced to live life on his own and stop being treated as the pet. Little Johnny-Cakes ran away as the pet and returned as a brave greaser who had saved Ponyboy. Change is a big part of life; Robert Frost and S.E Hinton displayed this well together.

Reflection

My goal for quarter 1 was to take more smart notes and be more aware of my thinking while reading. I semi accomplished my goal. I feel more aware of my thinking but I'm not taking as much smart notes. To fix this I am starting a book just for smart notes and one just to read. This will more or less force me to take more smart notes. When I do take smart notes they are mostly predictions. Or inferences that really are predictions. My goal from quarter one is going to stay up as a goal but in my head I have semi accomplished my first goal and I am using my smart notes to better understand my smart note book. I think these goals will defiantly better help me in my readings.

Outsiders Reflection

In chapter 2 of The Outsiders  by S.E Hinton The character Johnny is described as the gangs pet. As I approached this it confused me. Johnny is a human being, and in no way shape or form represents a house pet. But maybe this is a symbol for something else... In class it was stated that “pet” was a metaphor in being that Johnny was treated as a pet in the gang. Still confused a reader might ask you don’t honestly pet him and tell him he’s a good boy. So what? What does Johnny as a pet represent? Well most characters have wants and fears. Hinton does a great job relating almost every character trait to the characters wants and fears. Think about pets lives ... They wake up  eat, lay down, eat, sleep. Thats their day every day. Pets don’t have responsibilities. The owner does. In this case Johnny is the pet and the gang are the owner. So if you’re the owner and the pet bites you do you bite back? Short answer, no. In chapter 2  Johnny says “ ‘Leave her alone, Dally.’ ‘Huh?’ Dally was taken off guard.” (Pg. 24) Dally is one of the toughest in the group. Nobody really messed with him like that. Especially Johnny. Going back to the metaphor, most house pets don’t “act out”. And Dally showed that if they do you don’t do anything back. Their pets, their stupid. But when its comes to this book, stupid is a strong word. In The Outsiders theres book stupid and street stupid. The difference? Knowing how to act when your around other gangs and dealing with fights in alleys. School stupid is book smarts, your grades in school. Stupid in the context of The Outsiders is a very general word. But then arose another question. Why does a gang even have a pet? The greasers certainly don't need a pet. So why have one? I guess they don’t talk about him as one. While reading the whole book a reader always has to consider that all of the thoughts are from Ponyboys perspective. These are a few things I observed from reading chapters 2 & 3 of The Outsiders.

How Nerf Became the World’s Best Purveyor of Big Guns for Kids Super SmartNote

The First and Latest
Nerf Nonlethal Rounds

Every year Nerf faces a new challenge. How can we make our product better? Nerf sells their own line of ‘Blasters’. Nerf’s first goal to achieve was to make guns. Big guns. Rapid-fire guns. For kids. Thats right, for kids, you might be thinking ‘why create such a thing? Could kids get hurt with this? Why even think of such a device. Why? Because they could. In 2002 Nerf hired Brian Jablonski as a product design manager. (He figured he’d stick around for a couple years, then move on to another job.) But the company who owns Nerf, Hasbro, thought he was to good to leave. And he was. The only thing better than being good at your job is being good at it and loving it. Jablonski did love it. He had said: “working on Nerf stuff was sort of like waking up every day and driving a Mister Softee truck... [it made you] a protector of the cherished childhood memories of multiple generations.” When Nerf was created in 1970 its vision was not to do anything like it does today. Nerf was making footballs, basketballs, etc. But making a gun for a kid to safely use was definitely their biggest challenge. And the inspriation for these things does not just fall out of the sky. Jablonski does not just look to video games and movies but things like salad spinners and the coin slots on washing machines. Over the years a Blast a Ball game had turned into a Barricade RV-10 gun for kids the ages of 8-16 to use. All of Jablonski's products are tested with kids he says: "When you put a toy in the hands of an eight-year-old sometimes they tell you things you didn't expect." The evolution of Nerf must have been a fun experience. Something only a few people get to enjoy. 

See the article from Weird Magazine.

SuperSmartNote

On page 76 of the book Stormbreaker, By Anthony Horiwitz, Alex is meeting with his soon-to-be boss Mr. Blunt. "Blunt glanced at Mrs. Jones… She unwrapped another peppermint and nodded back". When I read this I made an inference. I inferred that before the meeting Blunt and Mrs. Jones had conferred about bringing Alex to the team. I also thought since Mr. Blunt nodded in the first place that maybe he was thinking 'this is our guy'. This is a sense of the author hinting to what is going to happen in the future. If the reader did not make an inference it wouldn't be as clear.